A darker side of Germany

Last Saturday we woke up to the sound of helicopters. Upon looking outside we found that this wasn't the usual medivac bringing people to and from the hospital, but rather a black surveillance copter hovering just north of where we live. We also saw a lot of people up and down our street, much more than is normal on a Saturday morning. By noon we could hear the chanting of about 1000 people from the city centre, and while eating brunch we had a couple dozen riot police running down our street.

Unlike usual, this was not all due to a rowdy football game. Rather it was because last Friday, August 17th, was the 20th anniversary of Rudolph Hess's death. You know, Hitler's deputy, convicted at Nuremburg to spend the rest of his life in prison, died of apparent suicide at the age of 93 in 1987, that guy. It seems that the far right party in German politics, the NPD, sees fit to organize celebrations on this day. Not celebrations because the guy died, but celebrations of what he stands for. (They tore down the prison where he lived after his death so that it wouldn't become a shrine.)

In other surrounding bundeslands (states) in Germany laws had been passed to make it illegal to hold protests on this day or weekend, but the courts in Gera (in Thüringen, where we live), decided that was a bit too undemocratic, as the official reason for the protest was concern over a law against "incitement of the people". According to Deutsche Welle's English website, this law carries prison time or fines for publicly glorifying or justifying the Nazi terror regime. Germany has remarkably strict laws about this sort of thing, at least by Canadian standards. Among things that are illegal here are denial of the Holocaust, performing Nazi salutes, and printing or selling copies of Mein Kampf. (Not that I want to do these things, but isn't banning ideas a bit, well, fascist?)

So the big deal on the weekend was due to about 300 right-extremist protestors holding a march in Jena Nord, just north of where we live, and there was a counter-demonstration by about 1000 anti-fascists (i.e. normal people) in the centre of town. The police were out in full force, doing their damndest to keep a buffer zone between the two groups. (We happen to live in the buffer zone.)

What's more troubling is that this protest was apparently just a dry run for the "Fest der Völker", or festival of nations/peoples, which is happening September 8th. This is a huge neo-nazi party for like-minded folks from across Europe, and it's happening right here in Jena. The city council is even asking citizens to come out to protest, so that this is not what Jena is known for. It should be interesting. Below are a few images from one of the news sites of the events last Saturday. First off are the right-wing extremists. They've really made an effort to clean up their image from the punk/skinhead look. Unfortunately I can't quite make out the black text on their banner, but the red just says free nationalists, and where they're from.
Next up is a group with a banner reading: National Socialism or Ruin. (Kind of like nazism or bust, I guess.)And here's the last group. Why, they cleaned these young men up so nicely they look almost as squeaky-clean as fascists in the 1930s!
And it really is almost all young men. Mostly young, unemployed men from poor cities in East Germany. And the NPD has come in and set up youth programs (like the Girls and Boys Club, but with less tolerance), and offered something for them to do.

And now for the counter-protest. Many more people, and right in the centre of the city. This sea of people is completely filling a large intersection and a little park where there's a fountain and the patio of an ice cream shop. (I almost called it an Ice Café, before remembering that that's really not what it's called in English.)
And this shot doesn't show the number of people as well, but you do get to see some of the diversity. Notice the women and older people? I guess things aren't that hopeless after all...